172 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS 



tive examples among our common wild flowers 

 possessing marvellous evolved devices, mechan- 

 isms, and peculiarities of form by which this nec- 

 essary cross-fertilization was assured. 



Prior to Darwin's time the flower was a voice 

 in the wilderness, heard only in faintest whispers, 

 and by the few. But since his day they have 

 bloomed with fresher color and more convinc- 

 ing perfume. Science brought us their message. 

 Demoralizing as it certainly was to humanity's 

 past ideals, philosophic, theologic, and poetic, it 

 bore the spirit of absolute conviction, and must 

 be heard. 



What a contrast this winged botany of to-day 

 to that of a hundred years ago ! The flower now 

 no longer the mere non-committal, structural, 

 botanical specimen. No longer the example of 

 mere arbitrary, independent creation, reverently 

 and solely referred to the orthodox " delight of 

 man." The blossom whose unhappy fate was be- 

 moaned by the poet because, forsooth, it must 

 needs " blush unseen," or " waste its sweetness on 

 the desert air," is found alone in that musty hor- 

 tus siccus of a blind and deluded past. From the 

 status of mere arbitrary creation, however " beau- 

 tiful," " curious," " eccentric," hitherto accepted 

 alone on faith "it is thus because it is created 



